July 3, 2008
Discuss Thursday's editorials
The Manchurian interrogation chart
Communist brainwashing techniques are hurting the U.S. from within, though not the way Hollywood once imagined.
An independent, unnamed interrogation expert tipped off The New York Times recently to the origins of coercive methods the military taught, and in a few cases used on prisoners, post-9/11 at Guantanamo. The methods were taken verbatim from a chart in a 1957 Air Force study on techniques the Chinese Communists used during the Korean War to get American POWs to confess to atrocities. Back then, the United States referred to the techniques as torture, which is what they were and what they remain today, irrespective of who uses them.
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A drive for more teens to save lives
American Red Cross: 'The need is constant. The gratification is instant. Give blood.'
When teenagers armed with birth certificate, Social Security card and mom or dad trot to the DMV, they're asked a sobering question: Do you want to be an organ donor? For some, it's the first time they've given much thought to whether they wish for any part of their body to help another's. Not that they want to think much about it. You have to be dead, right?
Read more.
Comments
[July 3, 2008 8:43 AM]
HenryIt's hard to argue with such a definitive source as an independent, unnamed interrogation expert. It would seem to me that a libelous article that defames our brave military men and women by accusing them of "torture" would be based on a better source.
[July 3, 2008 8:58 AM]
Dan RadmacherHenry,
As I said when you raised this same specious point before, it doesn't matter who the source was who tipped off The Times. Either trainers were using a chart of Chinese communist torture techniques to train interrogators or they were not. The Times verified that they were. The unnamed expert merely tipped them off to the existence of the original chart. The information provided was independently verified.
The important sources here are the training manuals used to train our interrogators and the 1957 study of Chinese torture techniques upon which, appallingly, that training was based.
It is not the fault of our soldiers that they were trained to torture. The fault lies far higher.
[July 3, 2008 9:44 AM]
Henry"It is not the fault of our soldiers that they were trained to torture. "
According to you, it is their fault. You are just blaming Bush for it because you don't like him. Bush was nowhere near Gitmo. If the techniques were used on the prisoners, Bush was not the one doing it. The soldiers can always say "no". American soldiers are not allowed to hide behind "I was just following orders" when it comes to things like torture. That's why the Abu Graib idiots went down. This whole idea that American soldiers are systematically torturing and brainwashing people just like the Red Chinese is just anti-American slander, even if it is backed by an impeccable unnamed source.
[July 3, 2008 1:06 PM]
JohnOne thing that will never deprive me of sleep is concern about how the CIA treats Islamic terrorists who want to kill Americans.
The War on Terror is not a football game where there are penalties for committing a personal foul. There are no points for "fairness" in war if the opposition doesn't follow the same rules. In war, winning is everything and I expect my side to do what it takes to win.
Mass suicide murderering, cutting heads off, highjacking airliners, etc. deserves no sympathy. I suspect the Islamic terrorists look on "concern about torturing" as a sign of weakness and all the more reason western culture will be destroyed. If left to the bleeding heart liberals (and you know who you are), the terrorists just might win.
[July 3, 2008 4:05 PM]
JoshWow. One Terrorist Bill of Rights plug for each day of July. That brings the ongoing tally thus:
Here's what I've found doing a cursory archive search of the RT blog since in began in October, 2006:
Editorials calling for terrorist rights - 8
Editorials praising the soldiers' Iraqi efforts - 0
Will the bad guys get another plug on Independence Day?
[July 3, 2008 5:40 PM]
JoshSorry, correction:
Editorials calling for terrorist rights - 9
Editorials praising the soldiers' Iraqi efforts - 0